Why few grocery stores come to Richmond

When Safeway closed its Macdonald Avenue store and opened a new branch in El Cerrito in August, it brought the number of full-service grocers in Richmond down to three — three supermarkets in a city of more than 100,000 people. Those full-service grocers include Foods Co., a discount grocer, 99 Ranch, a grocery chain specializing in Asian food products, and El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company, which sits on the border of El Cerrito.

And with 99 Ranch and El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company surrounded by El Cerrito residents, said Christine Firstenberg of the Bay Area-based Metrovation Brokerage firm, “Really, you’re talking about one grocery store in Richmond.”

In a study sponsored by the California FreshWorks Fund and the California Endowment, the nonprofit Social Compact Inc. found that on average Richmond residents have to travel .79 miles to get to a grocery store. Most of these stores are located in nearby cities like San Pablo and El Cerrito.

The shortage of grocery stores in Richmond is one of the reasons that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has categorized parts of the city as ‘food deserts,’ low-income communities that reside more than a mile from a supermarket or large grocery store. A separate study prepared by the nonprofit Social Compact found that even when you factored in supermarkets in nearby cities like San Pablo and El Cerrito, a third of Richmond residents still had to travel about a mile or more to get to a grocery store.

Recent federal initiatives like First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move!campaign have cast a national spotlight on food access issues, particularly the way limited access to supermarkets or other outlets for fresh, healthy foods affects public health. It’s one of the reasons why organizations like the California Endowment are funding healthy food initiatives in places like Richmond.

But like many stories about stubborn disparity, weeding through the roots of this grocery store gap starts with economics — in this case the business of grocery stores and the supply and demand for retail space in Richmond.

In his five years as the head of Richmond’s Office of Economic Development, Thomas Mills has been grappling with the issue of how to bring more supermarkets to the city. He keeps a Rolodex with the contact information for supermarket chains and real estate brokers. When new sites open up he picks up the telephone.

“If Fresh and Easy says ‘What do you have,’ we’ll go out and try to find sites,” Mills said.

If only it were that easy.

It turns out matching a grocery store to a retail location has many of the complexities and frustrations of matchmaking blind dates: picky parties with very specific checklists of what they want. For grocery stores that have spent years fine-tuning their business models, it means holding out for a building with just the right square footage, visibility and parking, as well as a neighborhood with the right number of households and mix of demographics.

Grocery stores treat their business models like “a science that is highly perfected,” said Dick Outcalt from the Seattle-based Outcalt & Johnson: Retail Strategists, LLC.

Even when grocers see demand in a city, they are unlikely to stray from their formula. The reason they are so particular, he says, comes down to the margins.

“Year after year, the percentage of pre-tax profits in the grocery industry are miniscule, the lowest 10 percent of all retail markets,” he said.

El Cerrito Natural Grocery Store faces the city of El Cerrito, but the property is technically on Richmond soil. (photo by: Mitzi Mock)

Mills says the specificity with which grocers make decisions about where to locate has been problematic for Richmond in a few ways, the first being an issue of demographics and perception.

“There’s a certain identity that the stores have, an identity about who they are trying to serve,” he said. “That doesn’t always mesh well with Richmond.”

Whole Foods, for example, has told the city that its checklist begins with the number of college educated people that live within a certain radius, Mills said.

When Safeway left town and opened a new store in the more affluent El Cerrito, Janet Johnson couldn’t help feeling burned.

“I’m coming from the perspective of a resident that is feeling frustrated, disrespected,” said Johnson, who works with Mills in the Office of Economic Development. “I’m watching our grocery stores go across the interstate.”

There are grocery stores, however, that see Richmond as a potential opportunity. Fresh and Easy, Mi Pueblo and the Grocery Outlet are some of the grocers that have expressed interest in coming to town, according to Mills and Firstenberg. But in these cases, the biggest problem has been finding a physical location that meets their model.

Firstenberg showed Fresh and Easy sites in Marina Bay, but she said the population density wasn’t high enough for its model. Mi Pueblo looked at the empty lot near Macdonald Avenue and 12th Street, but Mills said the grocer wanted to be closer to 23rd Street where there is a dense Hispanic community. He said a large enough building with adequate parking does not currently exist on that strip.

Grocery Outlet came the closest in recent years, when the company made an offer to lease the vacant building at San Pablo and Macdonald Avenue that once housed a Lucky’s grocery store.

“Richmond has a renaissance going on,” said Melissa Porter, vice president of marketing for Grocery Outlet. “We definitely think we could serve that community well.”

But only at the right cost. When the property owner decided to pursue another offer–property owners can be picky, too–Grocery Outlet said it couldn’t bid up its asking price.

“We run very tight margins,” Porter said. “Our business model only works at a certain rent.”

Few sites in Richmond have enough parking to accommodate a major grocery store. Safeway still has a lease on its old lot in Richmond, and it's unlikely that they will sublease to a competing grocer. (photo by: Mitzi Mock)

Chances are another supermarket chain won’t be moving in across the street to the old Safeway site on San Pablo and Macdonald either. That’s because Safeway still has a lease on the building and it’s unlikely that it would let a competitor move in when they have a store one mile down the same road. New Evolution Ventures, which owns Crunch and UFC gyms, is considering sub-leasing the site for a new fitness center.

The process for developing new sites to house large-scale grocery stores has barriers, too.

Firstenberg said many Bay Area cities, including Richmond and Alameda, run into development problems in built-up neighborhoods where the city blocks are shallow. Assembling enough land to locate a full-service grocery store would require buying up smaller properties and closing off streets. The cost and complexities of such a project, she said, would be impossible for most grocers to take on.

As for the less developed parcels in town, they are often on the outskirts of the city–where there are fewer potential customers–and have a history of heavy industry that can mean the land may not meet certain environmental standards.

With California’s redevelopment agencies facing elimination, and many private sector developers still tentative about investing in new projects, Mills said, he’s not sure how soon new retail developments will materialize.

Fresh and Easy and Mi Pueblo passed on the empty lot on Macdonald Avenue and 12th Street. With redevelopment agencies facing possible elimination and some private developers still feeling tentative about taking on new projects, city leaders say there are fewer resources for developing local infrastructure. (photo by: Mitzi Mock)

Some Richmond residents are tired of waiting. Earlier this month, city leaders, community organizers and food justice activists met at city hall in hopes of laying a framework for a new food policy council. During their discussion they listed out alternative sources for healthy foods, like farmer’s markets, community gardens or smaller independent grocery and produce stores.

Mills, who is president of the Mandela Foods Co-Op in Oakland, said bringing grocery stores to town will continue to be a priority for the city. After all, it’s not just about food–grocery stores also bring in sales tax revenue. But he’s glad people in the city are coming together to find ways to keep the community healthy.

“We need to stop waiting for the great grandfather grocery store in the sky to save us,” Mills said.

14 Comments

Joeon November 17, 2011 at 2:16 pm

Amazing that one can write so many words and neglect to even mention one of the big reasons: shoplifting by Richmond residents.

Big Mikeon November 17, 2011 at 3:23 pm

Joe your right. Shoplifting is just the tip of the iceberg. How many guards are gonna have to be posted out in front of the store ….and of course the Mayor won’t like the plastic bags being used. She’ll then ” Occupy ” the produce section demanding affordable apples!!!

Andrewon November 17, 2011 at 8:05 pm

Yep it was the first item on my list of reasons. Theft is a HUGE problem in all locations. I’d have to believe it is worse there. I’d venture to say it’s THE reason. Along w/ what Big Mike pointed out.

kateon November 18, 2011 at 5:50 pm

Inventory flies out the door by way of the five finger discount many Richmond residents participate in. –I am a former retail manager and I can tell you horror stores in dollar figures of how much this adds up to annually.

There are also groceries at Target and Costco, as well as Williams Natural Foods on San Pablo.

Mitzi Mockon November 18, 2011 at 9:50 am

Hi Chris,

Thanks for reading and commenting. My understanding is that Williams Natural Foods has stopped selling fresh produce. Target and Costco do sell food items, although my understanding is that Costco requires an annual membership fee, which may be an issue for some families. It’s also worth nothing that all three of these stores are located near the interstate on the edge of town, which may still be a far distance to travel if you live in, say, North Richmond.

It’s also true that there are small produce markets in town like those on 23rd Street. However, I’ve spoken to families who say that while they try to patron those stores, they often find themselves traveling to grocery stores in El Cerrito because they can’t get all the food items they need at these places, which means they end up spending more time, gas and money to get their grocery shopping done.

All true and all indicative of the trend in supermarkets. Safeway closed its two stores in Richmond and El Cerrito and opened its more regional “mega” store near the freeway because it considers Target and Costco (as well as Walmart in many areas) as its primary competitors. Similary, Albertsons/Lucky once had three normal-size stores on San Pablo Avenue (all in El Cerrito, but one was across from the Macdonald Avenue Safeway in Richmond) that it closed when it opened its much larger store at El Cerrito Plaza.

kateon November 18, 2011 at 5:55 pm

I’m sorry but Target and Costco are very sorry subsitutes for REAL stores. Consider; those of you who have been here long enough, just how many retail stores there were on San Pablo Ave., between the Dam Rd. and Mcdonald Ave. That really started to decline sharply in the beginning of the 90s. The Casino didn’t help nor did the flight of residence who valued quality of life. This pretty much ended middle class living in Richmond.

Don Gosneyon November 20, 2011 at 11:59 am

Mitzi,

Your comments about Target and Costco are right on target (no pun intended).

I’m a Costco junkie but as a single guy buying a crate of tomatoes just to get a couple doesn’t work. And you’re right that there’s a membership fee. And let’s not forget the often lengthy lines at the checkout counters. You can bet that they don’t know the meaning of the phrase “three’s a crowd”. [Of course, young people like yourself might not understand this phrase either. 🙂 ]

I love the fact that Target offers some food choices. Not only is it far cleaner than most grocery stores but the shelves are stocked with items I might buy.

But I still have to travel down the freeway to the El Cerrito Mall to buy the bulk of my groceries because the other stores don’t stock what I want to buy.

Lisaon November 28, 2011 at 9:54 pm

Agree w/ many points here and often wondered what it was about the Safeway at MacDonald Ave that made it such a magnet for crime and generally awful place to go when you didn’t seem to have the same problems just a few miles down San Pablo. My own experience is that no one place has everything I need, or a corner on quality, so I end up having to travel to different stores anyway. It’s Ranch 99 btw, not 99 Ranch.

Don Gosneyon November 20, 2011 at 12:15 pm

A GREAT article, Mitzi, and long overdue.

Like Chris, I’ve been here forever and remember when we had full service grocery stores all over town. Not just downtown but also around the perimeter and out in the el Sobrante Valley.

I have to agree with some of the commenters as well as a few things that you wrote that perception plays a large role. People read their newspapers and watch their TV news and they have the PERCEPTION that Richmond is a bad place. They also may know someone who tried to operate a business here in Richmond and they have the PERCEPTION that Richmond is an unfriendly place to try to operate a business. The City Hall we have today has to live with the reputation of the City Hall we used to have.

Then there’s the perceived problem of dealing with boards, committees and even the City Council who often try to dictate to businesses (and grocery stores) telling them how to run their business. This was seen earlier this year when one member of the Council (after shooting down the permit of a national chain sandwich shop) talked about requiring other restaurants and stores to only sell “healthy” food.

No article on the lack of full service grocery stores would be complete, though, without a discussion about why the stores left in the first place. This was touched on by a couple of the commenters when they mentioned the problem with street people and youth stealing them blind.

Not only that, but there’s the negative perception about some of the people who frequent the parking lots of some of these stores that scare people away. Even many of the people who frequent the FoodsCo on Macdonald speak about the drug dealers, thieves, street people, aggressive panhandlers and others who hang out in the parking lot forcing the shoppers to run the gantlet just to get their groceries–and then worry how they’re going to get them (and their purses and wallets) back to their cars.

This is an epidemic problem not just in Richmond but all over the country. There was an article in the newspapers a couple of months ago celebrating the opening of a major grocery store in Detroit (a city of three quarters of a million residents). The article pointed out that this was the only major grocery store in Detroit. Like Richmond, South Central and many other cities, these major grocery stores abandoned these urban communities. Of course, what this does is help these depressed communities devolve even further.

We need civic leaders (elected, hired or just self appointed) to work to find ways of bringing businesses INTO Richmond instead of forcing them to leave.

local guyon November 21, 2011 at 5:15 pm

Why doesn’t Richmond sponsor a permanent farmer’s market? In many countries, people don’t buy groceries at a supermarket, but at a market or mercado with many indepndent vendors. Even in the U.S there is the Grand Central market in L.A. , the Pike’s Place market in Seattle, etc. I think ther used to be one in Oakland (Housewives market?) Couldn’t Richmond facilitate that using grants and SBA loans, and make the permit process easy so anyone with a pickup truck and a few dollars could go to the wholesale produce or fish market in the a.m. and sell his wares at a stall in the p.m.? Surely liquor stores and crack hosues aren’t the only viable retail options in Richmond. But don’t wait for the corporations–it won’t pencil out for them until things change dramatically.

The parking lot at Foodsco is definitely discouraging, but their prices are good.

You need to define your full service market better, so we know what you’re talking about.

When you drive, it costs money. There are fresh veggies all over Richmond.

I think you’re just advocating consumerism with the elaborate definition. How about an article about how the poor people in Richmond make do with plain old food, without a Starbucks? It would be a lot more useful, since the upper middle class in the low hills will soon be shopping Foodsco.

East Richmond Residenton November 29, 2011 at 11:35 am

This is a great article, really excellent. Some general comment: The Macdonald/San Pablo intersection situation is not only depressing to residents of East Richmond, but the appearance of blight is probably contributing to suppressed recovery of house values, compared to the adjacent El Cerrito Mira Vista neighborhood. Also, not only do the shuttered supermarkets create blight and food deserts; the closed Safeway had a a terrific and responsive pharmacy that was more like a neighborhood drugstore.

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